


[Fandom stats] Parentlock

by toastystats (destinationtoast)



Series: Fandom Stats [37]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Kid Fic, Meta, Nonfiction, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-27
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2019-09-20 01:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17012583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinationtoast/pseuds/toastystats
Summary: A look at parenting fanworks and kid fic in the Sherlock fandom, as of May 2014.





	[Fandom stats] Parentlock

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/87009199591/parentlock-parenting-and-kid-fic-in-the-sherlock).

**PARENTLOCK: PARENTING AND KID FIC IN THE SHERLOCK FANDOM**

In preparation for the upcoming Three Patch Podcast episode on Parentlock, I decided to look at parenting fic in the Sherlock fandom from a statistical perspective.

**Quick Summary**

Compared to the Sherlock fandom overall, parenting fic:

  * has lower ratings 
  * is more Johnlocky  

  * has more Irene/Sherlock
  * is fluffier
  * is more popular
  * is longer



**Methods**

I compared the following tags on AO3:

  * [Sherlock (TV)](http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Sherlock%20\(TV\)/works) tag -- 55K fics 
  * [Parentlock](http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Parentlock/works) tag -- 711 fics
  * [Sherlock + Kid Fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Kid+Fic&work_search%5Bquery%5D=-kidlock+-teenlock&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&tag_id=Sherlock+%28TV%29) (omitting Kidlock and Teenlock) -- 1048 fics



The Kid Fic tag is a mix of Sherlock characters raising kids and Sherlock characters as kids, but omitting Kidlock and Teenlock removes most of the latter category.

**Ratings**

Parenting/kid fic has lower ratings than fandom as a whole (Blue = General; ratings increase clockwise from there):

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipPd3l1OlK4iK3Op-nHYFHyn4EJ49Cx_s7C1DPBg?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipMI6Fr3oKy5nPzWkpkkJ2bJRMhSitjaDfDqO2Jw?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipOcgjUYliCRSox0-yh66Amb3gP0WdhqBjXHrwN4?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

**Genres**

There is way more Fluff than Angst for Parenting/kid fic, though they’re nearly equal for fandom overall:

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipM_0siCA0K4jVpTjN4_cFokBO7dGQEqnYZlukP0?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

**Shipping**

Both Parentlock and Kid Fic are more Johnlocky than the fandom as a whole:

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipNl8RMhQVyuUcqJUQQrJPBbs4_TKWV8dIg0Sps1?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

I didn’t notice any other big shipping differences, except that Irene/Sherlock is more common in Parenting/kid fic (note that the top of this scale is 5%; these are much smaller numbers than the above graph):

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipPHwjtvKnEK4Yd96ldcJt7FFI9WYUYxtCzlHRQq?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

**Popularity**

Parenting/kid fic is more popular than average for the fandom (comparing median number of kudos in each category):

[ ](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipMih00yD6yGZuiGxxZ5doaUr3_Iw_AgQuweJAab?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

  * Sherlock: 22 kudos (median)
  * Parentlock: 30 (36% more than average)
  * Sherlock + Kid Fic: 33 (50% more than average)



**Length**

Parenting/kid fic is longer than average for the fandom:

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipO_g-PvELKZAD_jkHgOJIF_S_q6KOVhSF757Jbh?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

  * Sherlock: 1624 words (median)
  * Parentlock: 2701 words (66% longer than average)
  * Sherlock + Kid Fic: 2493 words (54% longer than average)



**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome, but I’m in the middle of a massive fandom stats backup due to Tumblr purge, so I may be slow to respond.


End file.
